Installing StrongLinux over the network (PXE)

make pxe (or installer/build-pxe.sh) builds, from the newest ISO in out/, the /srv/stronglinux-pxe tree, served by nginx at http://<server>/pxe/. The client boots from the network, GRUB downloads the kernel and the initrds, and casper downloads the whole ISO over HTTP and mounts it as /cdrom. From then on the installation is the same as from the CD: the same autoinstall profiles, the same disk check, the same branding.

Client requirements: network boot enabled (UEFI, with or without Secure Boot; or BIOS) and 6 GB of RAM or more (the ISO stays in memory during the installation).

DHCP + TFTP with dnsmasq

On a server in the same network (it can be the build server itself):

# /etc/dnsmasq.d/stronglinux-pxe.conf
# Network that already has DHCP: proxy mode (only hands out the boot, no IPs)
dhcp-range=192.0.2.0,proxy
enable-tftp
tftp-root=/srv/stronglinux-pxe
# UEFI x86-64 (architectures 7 and 9): signed shim; BIOS: GRUB i386-pc
pxe-service=x86-64_EFI,"StrongLinux (UEFI)",bootx64.efi
pxe-service=x86PC,"StrongLinux (BIOS)",boot/grub/i386-pc/core

Replace 192.0.2.0 with the clients' network. If there is no other DHCP server on the network, use dhcp-range=<start>,<end>,12h instead of proxy mode.

Menu

The menu has one submenu per language (English, Português (Brasil), Español) with the same profiles as the ISO: StrongLinux, interactive, and StrongLinux + OpenStack (all-in-one, controller, compute, network, storage). The unattended options erase the disk.

Tested

In a QEMU VM with UEFI (OVMF) using QEMU's built-in DHCP/TFTP (-nic user,tftp=/srv/stronglinux-pxe,bootfile=bootx64.efi): shim and GRUB over TFTP, ISO over HTTP downloaded by casper; the unattended installation is being tested.